TEHRAN-The Persian translation of the novel “The Castle of Otranto” written by Horace Walpole has been released in the Iranian book market.

The book has been translated by Mehrdad Vosoughi and published by Qoqnoos Publishing House, ISNA reported.

First published pseudonymously in 1764, “The Castle of Otranto” purported to be a translation of an Italian story of the time of the crusades. In it, Walpole attempted, as he declared in the preface to the second edition, “to blend the two kinds of romance: the ancient and the modern”.

Crammed with invention, entertainment, terror, and pathos, the novel was an immediate success and Walpole's own favorite among his numerous works.

It is considered the first Gothic novel in the English language, and it is often said to have founded the horror story as a legitimate literary form.

Set in a haunted castle, the novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetic of the book has shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music, and the goth subculture.

Walpole was inspired to write the story after a nightmare he had at his Gothic Revival home, Strawberry Hill House, in Twickenham, southwest London. Claiming he saw a ghost in the nightmare—which featured a “gigantic hand in armor”—Walpole incorporated imagery from this into the novel, and also drew on his knowledge of medieval history.

“The Castle of Otronto” is a story of one man's desperate and villainous plot to protect his family's claim to the throne. In seeking to divorce his wife Hippolita and marry the young Isabella, he tries to gain a son to secure his family's reign, but fails.

Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He is now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill, the home he built in Twickenham, south-west London where he revived the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors, and for his Gothic novel “The Castle of Otranto”. Along with the book, his literary reputation remains on his letters, which are of significant social and political interest.

SS/SAB